THEThe secret of altruism is hidden in an area of the brain called vmPfc, the ventromedial prefrontal cortex. This was discovered by a group of scientists from the universities of Birmingham and Oxford, UK, who by studying around twenty patients with damage to this brain region identified it as the ‘home’ of the desire to help others. The research is published in ‘Nature Human Behavior’ and according to the authors it will help understand how to motivate people to work hard to overcome some of the main challenges of our day: from climate change to the winds of war that are blowing ever stronger. Furthermore, knowing what drives feelings of solidarity between human beings could help define new approaches against the disorders that affect social interactions.
“The so-called prosocial behaviors – explains Patricia Lockwood, main author of the work – are essential” to row together towards the good of individuals, humanity and the planet. “Yet helping others is often exhausting, and humans are averse to effort“, constitutionally reluctant to embark on difficult things, be it a good deed or a great undertaking. “Understanding how helping decisions are processed in the brain is extremely important.”
The researchers focused on the vmPfc, a region located in the front part of the brain, because its key role in decision-making processes and other executive functions was already known. Thanks to magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), previous research has linked this brain area to choices that involve a trade-off between the prospect of receiving a reward and the effort needed to obtain it. But techniques such as MRI cannot demonstrate whether specific functions actually depend on a specific region of the brain.
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The authors therefore recruited 25 patients with damage to the vmPfc, 15 with lesions in other brain areas and 40 healthy people comparable with the first two groups. They then subjected all participants to an experiment to assess the impact of vmPfc damage.
Each participant in the experiment was asked to complete a task that allowed them to measure how much they were willing to endure physical effort, in exchange for a monetary reward for themselves and another person. The researchers were able to convey the feeling that the effort made would produce real consequences. Each choice made varied based on the size of the reward available to oneself and the other, as well as the effort required to earn the reward. This allowed the impact of the bonus and the effort to be measured separately and to precisely quantify people’s motivation, through advanced mathematical models.
The results of the study “clearly” showed the association between vmPfc and altruism. Compared to other groups, the scientists observed, patients with vmPfc damage were less willing to choose to help others, or in any case made less effort even when they did decide to do so. Not only. In a subsequent step, using a technique called lesion symptom mapping, the authors managed to identify even more specific subregions of the vmPfc, whose damage made people particularly antisocial and reluctant to work hard for the sake of another. And “surprisingly, damage to a nearby but different subregion made people relatively more willing to help,” the scientists found.
“In addition to better understanding prosocial motivation – comments Jo Cutler, co-author of the study – this research could also help us develop new treatments for clinical disorders such as psychopathy”. The vmPfc “is particularly interesting – concludes Lockwood – because we know that it undergoes late development in adolescents and changes as we age. It will be really interesting to see if this area of the brain can also be influenced by education: we can learn to be better and more altruistic ?”. Research continues to answer this question too.
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